Betting Odds Heavily Favor Alabama in Opening Round Matchup Against Robert Morris

As expected, Robert Morris is a massive underdog in its opening-round NCAA Tournament game against Alabama. As a 15-seed going up against a 2-seed, it was a given that the Colonials would not be favored to walk away victorious but the opening line for the game has Robert Morris 22.5-point underdog, according to FanDuel.

Robert Morris is also a 22.5-point underdog on BetMGM but actually have worse odds in regard to winning the game outright as they have the Crimson Tide at -10,000 on the money line and the Colonials at +1,800.

22.5-points is a steep number to overcome but the Colonials are one of the hottest teams in all of college basketball when going against the spread. This season, the Colonials were among the top of all tournament teams with a 25-8-0 record against the spread.

That ranked third among all qualified tournament teams behind just UC San Diego (25-7-0) and Florida (26-8-0).

While this does imply that the Colonials definitely have a chance at upsetting the Crimson Tide, it does show that Robert Morris can play a tighter game than what is expected of them.

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The Crimson Tide are like no other team that the Colonials have played this season. Hailing from the SEC, which most people and metrics consider the best conference in all of college basketball right now, Alabama’s style of play is not comparable to any Horizon League team.

The Crimson Tide are the nation’s highest scoring team and best rebounding team as they average 91.1 points per game and 43.1 rebounds per game.

In comparison, the Colonials score on average 76.9 points per game and haul in 37.3 rebounds per game, both are lower than their opposition.

The benefit that the Colonials have is the Crimson Tide’s defense allows teams to score 81.4 points on average while the Colonials defense allows just 70.4 points per game, albeit against lesser competition.

Regardless, Robert Morris has a tall hill to climb if they want to pull off the opening-round upset of Alabama on Friday afternoon in Cleveland. Tipoff is scheduled for 12:40 p.m. and the game will be nationally broadcasted on truTV.